On a Wednesday night in late May, Erie Superintendent Jay Badams stood in front of his school board and a packed auditorium of parents to make a startling proposal: Rather than make more cuts and eliminate sports, arts and music programs, the district should pass an unbalanced budget.

Badams said he’d rather shut down all four of the city’s high schools than continue with program cuts. Drastic matters call for drastic actions, he said. When Badams took the helm of the state’s 10th-largest district in 2010, he erased a $26-million shortfall by cutting 240 teaching positions.

Enough was enough.

“The only things left substantial that we have to cut are student programs,” Badams said. “And that’s something we’ve tried avoid like the plague for the past five years.”

One of the poorest districts in the state, Erie’s financial crisis is extreme. But the district isn’t alone in dealing with a budget crunch. Districts across the state are trying to balance budgets littered with state mandates. Fixed costs – salaries, pensions, health-care fees, charter school payments – make up the vast majority of school budgets.

As those costs continue to rise, districts are trying to keep pace while state mandates limit how much officials can raise taxes each year. Despite those caps, 15 of the 19 districts in The Times’ coverage area increased property tax rates to balance budgets for the 2016-17 school year.

While Badams has left every option open to address the crisis in Erie, his stance about cutting programs hasn’t changed.

“I still feel that way,” Badams said. “I feel enough is enough.”

Many of his fellow educators agree. Despite rising expenses and dwindling revenues, they argue programs outside of the classroom – including sports – are vital to a well-rounded education.

Tough choices

A Times review of public school budgets for every district in its coverage area found that local schools have a median budget of $23.7 million. On average, a district spends 1.3 percent of its budget on athletics, according to a review of Disclosure of Interscholastic Athletic Opportunity reports filed by 19 local districts.

That spending is funded mostly by property taxes levied on local homeowners. According to a 2015 study completed by the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators and the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials, 56 percent of school funding comes from local taxes and 37 percent comes from state funding.

With expenses rising faster than revenue, schools facing a budget crunch may have to explore program cuts. English, math and science are mandated by the state, so the initial targets for cuts are arts, music and sports. It’s a move most educators hesitate to consider.

“I think there’s this perception and misconception that schools should just target what you’re being tested in and all your money should be dumped into those areas,” Riverside superintendent David Anney said. “We just don’t have that mindset.”

And no district should, said Linda Hippert, executive director of the Allegheny Intermediate Unit. A fully well-rounded education involves everything from reading and math to sports and music. A former superintendent at the South Fayette School District, Hippert said that while academics should always come first, children need to experience more.

“There is a culture, at least in western Pennsylvania, that sports program are a part of the public school system. It’s not only athletics, but the arts, too,” Hippert said. “All parents want a quality education first, but the expectation on our region is that we have the arts and athletics as components of that education.”

That preference isn’t going anywhere, said Rob Postupac, superintendent of the Blackhawk and Western Beaver school districts. Some educators have explored different methods, but they haven’t seemed to work, he said.

“Tradition is very hard to break,” Postupac said. “I would say the fine arts, involvement in extracurricular activities and all of that being related to the child at school will continue for a while. And I think that’s a good thing.”

Programs like sports are a visible budget item, and because the programs take place outside of the classroom, they’re an easier target. But for administrators such as Quaker Valley’s Mike Mastroianni, the argument in favor of keeping sports as part of the curriculum centers on the concept of activities serving as an extension of the classroom.

“There are so many life lessons and experiences you gain by participating and just being a part of a team,” said Mastroianni, who is Quaker Valley’s athletics and activities director as well as its boys basketball coach. “Championships are great, but being part of a team helps every student-athlete carry some values through them through their lives.”

Juggling the numbers

Creating a school budget has become a quagmire with few viable solutions. In June 2015, the state’s education pension fund was short $37 billion, a number that has quadrupled in the past seven years. The state has required districts to increase their contribution to make up for that shortage, a mandate that has dovetailed with rising healthcare costs and state-mandated charter school payments.

That has put a huge strain on districts and their fiscal flexibility, said John Hynes, business manager at the Beaver Area School District.

“Our budget is $30 million, but 70 to 80 percent of it is not discretionary,” Hynes said. “We’re in a financial box with limited movement.”

Despite a $4.3 million deficit, the Erie school board unanimously passed a $185.8-million final budget for the 2016-17 school year. Badams turned to the state legislature for assistance.

The state provided $3.3 million in additional funding from the state budget and $4 million in emergency funding. The crisis was averted for a year, but the district still can’t keep pace with rising costs due to decreased income. Erie faces an $8-to-$10-million deficit for its next budget and will continue to operate in the red unless something changes.

Badams and other educators are optimistic that intervention will come in the form of a change in state funding. While the state voted over the summer to adopt a version of a fair funding formula – which weights factors like poverty, special needs, English language learners and more to issue funding – critics say it doesn’t go far enough and that it won’t solve the immediate crises.

“They chickened out. They were only willing to apply that formula to new money,” Badams said. “All that did was bake in the inequity that was built up over the last two decades.”

Solutions hard to find

Things aren’t as dire in this area. But the story of Erie City Schools is a cautionary tale. To combat rising costs and keep programs active, local schools are relying on alternative methods to supplement funding.

That’s particularly true in sports. In 2014-15, six local schools – Blackhawk, Central Valley, Hopewell, Moon, Quaker Valley and West Allegheny – reported to the state that booster and alumni contributions totaled in excess of $100,000.

“Not only has the level of support changed, but what the boosters are supporting has changed as we face these funding crises and deal with juggling the needs of the programs,” said Scott Antoline, director of finance and operations at Quaker Valley. “Back when I started doing this, it was all about T-shirts and jackets and those kinds of rewards. Now it’s supporting the program with equipment needs.”

West Allegheny athletic director Dave McBain said that while districts still budget and plan out large-ticket item investments – including uniforms – some supplemental equipment is now bought by boosters or parents.

That includes districts that have implemented pay-to-play programs. A 2013 report from the Pennsylvania School Boards Association showed that as much as 40 percent of schools required parents to pay fees ranging from $5 to $50 to participate in an activity.

“There’s only so much money, and how do I divide that up?” Hippert said. “When we’re doing the budget, you have the band parents who believe their team needs new uniforms, but so do the football parents. How do you decide between those two?”

Creativity has become paramount for districts trying to keep a bolstered sports program. Several schools have established co-operative agreements to enable students to keep playing sports or participate in programs if their home school no longer provides it. Others volunteer to host multiple scrimmages or events at once to reduce costs.

“We try to be as creative as we can to save travel costs and travel time and everything else,” McBain said.

A handful of districts in the Times’ coverage area recently completed or are about to embark upon renovations to athletic facilities. Quaker Valley installed new field turf at Chuck Knox Stadium. Beaver installed new turf and renovated the stands and press box at Gypsy Glen Stadium and is in the midst of a pool renovation. West Allegheny will begin construction on athletic facility renovations in the spring of 2017 and Blackhawk has planned out a multipurpose athletic complex to be ready for the fall of 2017.

All four complexes have turf fields, a decision that’s born out of practicality and necessity. While the discussion over Blackhawk’s new athletic complex has been contentious at times because of cost concerns, Postupac said the facility will help the district centralize and better manage a heavy rotation of sports and other events. Community fundraising via the Blackhawk Activities and Athletics Committee, company donations and more will combine with district financing to pay for the athletic complex.

The Beaver Area School District Education Foundation agreed to match up to $100,000 in donations to help upgrade the district’s swimming pool. That project was not in the district’s budget, Hynes said, and is the first instance he’s seen of parents being willing to make a substantial financial contribution. The district has agreed to pay up to $35,000 toward the upgrades – which include a new liner, new heater and other portions of the pool – but the final price tag could hit $273,000.

There were a lot of decisions that went into causing issues with the pool, Hynes said. For instance, the district’s decision to not do anything about its water softener wreaked havoc on the pipes and valves on the pool.

“The decision to not do anything cost thousands of dollars to fix the valves,” he said. “People don’t understand the risks in deferring. You can’t have an investment of that size and not maintain it.”

Aliquippa has also leaned on the community for help with facilities improvements. An alumni group partnered with the district to raise and manage funds to renovate 79-year-old Carl Aschman Stadium. The first step included replacement of bleachers on the home sideline, new paint and other improvements.

“Our facilities, other than our football stadium being old and needing some renovations, I think people here are doing as good of a job as they can do,” Aliquippa football coach and athletic director Mike Zmijanac said. “They’re looking for a little bit of help and certainly cleaned up the stadium well.”

More plans are in the works, but as one of the state’s poorest districts, Aliquippa doesn’t have the financing to budget stadium improvements without outside help.

“Some places have the financial wherewithal to do anything they want,” Zmijanac said. “We don’t, so we have to do things a step at a time.”

Not just a game

A review of Disclosure of Interscholastic Athletic Opportunity reports show that football is the sport that the most money is spent on in local high schools. In Ambridge, for example, the district spent $59,800 of its $246,700 budget on football, about 24 percent of its athletic spending in 2014-15. The district offers 13 sports, including soccer, wrestling, volleyball, softball and basketball.

“(Football) really brings the community together,” Hippert said. “Take any school that has football games and soccer games and all of those things and it’s filtering down to the youth. It brings parents and the community together to really enjoy the accomplishments. That’s why the money is spent in those ways.”

At some schools across the region, multiple generations have all worn the same school colors. There is a pride in supporting your alma mater, and it doesn’t always have to do with wins and losses.

“I don’t even know if it’s so much with the success of the programs as it is people who want to do good,” Zmijanac said. “As long as kids are interested in playing, we’ll all find a way. We haven’t been a juggernaut in baseball or softball, but we still want to provide that experience for kids who want to play. It’s not as important to win as it is to participate.”

Youth programs and club teams provide an opportunity for those who want to specialize or play in the off-season, but educators argue it’s not the same.

“It’s not your school,” McBain said. “That’s different. It’s something special that you can say you played for your school team and represented your community.”

In many ways, football is the last bastion of high school sports. There is no offseason substitute for high school football games like there is in other sports. College coaches lean on AAU basketball, club soccer, travel softball and junior hockey to scout recruits more than high school events. It’s easy to see those organizations rising to take the place of high school sports if financial difficulties continue.

“The pot of money is not unlimited,” Hippert said. “We’d like to keep everything, but I think those are the decisions that will have to be made in the future unless something changes.”

There is still hope

Despite his district’s dire circumstances, Badams is optimistic.

“I’m hopeful, because I just can’t believe that a state would allow one of its largest districts to go bankrupt,” he said. “And I don’t think they will.”

While he works to demonstrate Erie’s need for assistance, Badams and his fellow educators will continue to push for changes to the state’s education funding. Without changes, it’s possible other districts may face funding crises of their own, placing vital programs like sports in jeopardy. Much of the western world does not fund or sponsor organized sports at the high school level at the rate that the American education system does. Badams said he’d be intrigued by the possibility of shifting sports off the education budget and have the costs covered privately or philanthropically.

But for now, it’s about fairness and opportunity. And it’s something Badams feels is worth fighting for.

“If our students can’t have sports purely because we’re not funded properly, but students in every school district and township around us can, that’s where I have a problem,” Badams said. “As long as the norm is that students get sports programs in school, then I believe our students have every right to have those programs.”

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